Following several months of high inflation in Bangladesh, the overall trend of easing price pressures continues.
According to the latest data from the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), overall inflation dropped for the third consecutive month to 8.26% in August, marking a 10-month low.
With food inflation also falling into the 7% range, there are indications that price pressures on essential commodities in the market are easing somewhat.
An analysis of BBS data shows that after inflation peaked at a year-high of 9.42% in May, it declined by 1.16 percentage points over the subsequent three months.
In July, overall inflation stood at 8.32%. Within a span of a month, it decreased by 0.06 percentage points in August.
Earlier, in November 2025, inflation was at 8.29%. It then gradually rose to hit its peak in May of this year. In June, it dropped to 9.16%.
The slowing growth rate of food prices played the most significant role in driving down inflation.
According to BBS data, food inflation dropped to 7.02% in August, down from 7.16% in July.
In August of last year, this rate was 7.60%. Rural overall inflation decreased from 8.36% in July to 8.31% in August.
Additionally, urban inflation fell from 8.24% in July to 8.20% in August.
Improvements in the supply situation of essential goods, alongside various policy and fiscal initiatives by the government, are believed to be helping reduce price pressures.
In FY27 budget, tax deducted at source (TDS) has already been reduced on 60 essential items.
Furthermore, initiatives like the Food Friendly Program, Open Market Sales (OMS), and Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) activities for low-income groups have been strengthened.
At the same time, TCB is taking new steps to supply certain imported essentials collected at lower prices without subsidies to the market.
For the current FY27, the government has set a target to bring overall inflation down to 7.5%.
The August statistics indicate positive progress toward that goal.
However, economists point out that a fall in inflation does not mean absolute product prices are decreasing; rather, it means the rate at which prices rise has slowed down.
Consequently, maintaining this recent downward trend to further ease the actual cost-of-living burden on the general public across both food and non-food sectors remains the primary challenge.